Gabriel, a large snow-white bird, who shares duties with Marcus as one of Deke’s personal Sentries, is slowly swimming around the edges of the pond looking for a particular black-brown goose with a large white collar wrapped around its short neck. In and out of reeds and grass, startling napping geese and drifting fuzzy goslings huddling near their mothers. He was getting frustrated and not finding the goose that he finally swam into a group of birds treading in the water in a tight circle, obviously gossiping about something unknow to him.
“Does anyone know where High is?” Gabriel demanded of the group.
“Why?” a small, brown gooses asked in response.
“Yeah, why?” another joined the first goose.
“That is between me and High,” Gabriel stressed to them.
“Then why should I tell you where High is then.” The first one responded, “If you aren’t going to tell me why?”
“That’s a lot of whys,” a third larger white bird said.
“It is urgent business from The Wist,” Gabriel finally explained. “I do not know why I have to explain to you.”
The group laughed as one except for one goose bobbing with each ripple of water.
“High is very high, right now,” the voice was quiet and simply looked up.
“What do you mean?,” Gabriel asked as he turned his attention toward the bird who was speaking.
“Her name is High, you know,” the voice said to him.
His gaze remained on a circling goose as he spread his wings and pushed downward and rose from the water. He continued to flap his large wings, gaining speed as he continued to rise. The circling bird’s image continued to become clearer and Gabriel noticed that she was riding on the updraft, simply flexing her wingtips to stay afloat. He eased beside her.
“Hello,” he began.
“Hello. What brings you up here so high in the sky?” she turned her head toward him. Gabriel noticed that she had bright blue eyes and they looked at each other for a moment and then she turned back in the direction she was set on.
“What are you doing up here so high in the sky?” he repeated the question toward her.
“Well, I will tell you even tough you have not told me why you are up here yet, “ she flapped her wings once as she responded to him. “Sometimes I like to get away, as high as I can get, to just think.”
He flapped once to keep flying next to her. “Think about what?” he asked.
“Oh, anything. Sometimes on why we do what we do and sometimes on why the Bright Light shines brighter on some days and not so bright on others. Today, I was simply thinking and wondering why we don’t fly as high as this and just float.”
Gabriel looked at this goose beside him and tried to decide if she was a little off center or if she was just thoughtful. He decided on the latter and asked, “Why are you called High?”
She laughed a quiet laugh before answering, “Everyone asks me that question. I was the first one who hatched in my clutch and my father had convinced my Mother that their first born would be called High because he wished that that one to soar as high as the sun. Funny, isn’t it, that here we are…high in the sky.” High looked at Gabriel and held his gaze this time.
Gabriel looked at those bright blue eyes and said, “You are summoned to appear before the Wist tomorrow at First Light. Will you be there?”
She continued to look at him as she thought about how to answer his question. Finally, she responded, “Of course.” She then took two strong flaps and veered to her left leaving Gabriel behind watching her grow smaller as she floated away.
My First Stories 